Reno Gazette-Journal from Reno, Nevada • Page 57

Mevada Today's tip Sunday FEBRUARY 9, 1986 RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL Section 2D SADDLE CHATTER 4D OBITUARIES 4D VITALS The Governor's Office of Community Services will sponsor a Western States Energy Policy Forum and Exposition at the MGM today through Tuesday. Details: 885-4420. Police identify man hit by patrol car yodowmieir Doable for theft A pedestrian killed after being struck by a Reno Police patrol car while crossing South Virginia Street Friday night has been identified as Donald Ault, 63, of Texas. Ault, who was pronounced dead at the scene, lived at 9850 Meadowglen Lane in Houston. Officer Don Briggs was driving Victims win suit over lax security, get $1 .3 million By Courtney BrennGazette-Journai A federal jury Saturday awarded $1.3 million in damages to four Washington state women robbed at gunpoint in the Sundowner hotel-casino two years ago.

The women and their husbands sued the Sundowner for failing to provide adequate security, saying the hotel had experienced a rash of room robberies at the time of the incident in March 1984. Lawyers for the women had sought $3.9 million from the Sundowner, but attorney Lawrence Semenza said Saturday his clients were pleased with the judgment. "Obviously they're exceedingly happy that the verdict was in their favor," Semenza said. "They hope this will serve as an example to the Sundowner. They thought something should be done to compel the Sundowner to provide adequate security." Sundowner owner George Karadanis and the Sundowner's attorney could not be reached Saturday, and a spokesman at the casino declined comment on the verdict.

The three-man, three-woman jury, which received the case Friday, awarded Mary Ellen Gilmore of Duvall, and Francis Hebert of Redmond $15,000 each. Marlene Reardon of Carnation was awarded $32,500 and Dorothy Davis, also of Carnation, $25,000. In addition, the jury ordered the Sundowner and Karadanis to pay $1,250,000 in punitive damages. The jury did not award any money to the husbands, who had asked for $50,000 each. After the verdict was reached, one i SOUul in uie lauu uiin.iv wiicii 111a v-ai Mark CrosseGazette-Journal HEAVE-HO-O-O! Dick Wixon, right, lets out a yell as he sawing event held at the Sierra-Cascade Logging Confer-and partner Barry Hitchcock compete in the double-buck ence Saturday.

'Paul Bunyans' prove to be juror said the panel made the large punitive award because of Karadanis' "callous disregard" for security. "We wanted to get his attention," said juror David Payne. "It has an affect on the city as a whole. People who leave here robbed don't come back." Payne said testimony showed security at the Sundowner was inadequate, even after robberies occurred. "With two security guards, sometimes three, and mostly concentrated in the casino, open fire doors, no security cameras, as far as we could tell there was no See SUNDOWNER, page 3D Reid to make opening bid for Laxalt seat By Myram BordersGazette-Journal LAS VEGAS Democratic Rep.

Harry Reid fires the opening salvo Monday in his bid for Paul Laxalt's U.S. Senate seat, a battle that could not only affect politics in Washington but also determine Nevada's political destiny for decades to come. Reid has scheduled a news conference for 10 a.m. in Carson City Monday to formalize his candidacy. His unannounced competition most certainly will be former four-term Rep.

James Santini, who switched from the Democratic to the Republican Party last year shortly after Laxalt decided not to seek re-election. "Everything is on target. I would expect to announce no longer than a month from now," Santini said Saturday. The secret Republican Wirthlin poll reportedly showed early on that Santini was preferred over Rep. Barbara Vucan-ovich, because of his statewide name recognition and alliances in populous southern Nevada.

A Reid poll com- Eleted in December by a Washington-ased firm showed the congressman 5 percentage points ahead of Santini statewide with Santini's name recognition in Washoe County topping Reid 67 percent to 44 percent. Reid, a two-term congressman from Las Vegas and a former Nevada lieutenant governor and Gaming Commission chairman, initially is expected to campaign hardest to overcome his disadvantage in northern Nevada. Santini, according to political experts, must overcome the label of "opportunist" branded by some when he switched parties. He will also have to explain his absentee record in Congress; he missed more than 100 House votes in the 1982 session while campaigning unsuccessfully in the Democratic primary against then-Sen. Howard Cannon.

"He never went back, he collected his pay and cleaned out his desk," said a Cannon supporter. Sources within the Republican Party discount recent rumors that Santini is wavering in his decision to tackle Reid because of reports of the deteriorating health of his son, Mark. Santini said that fortunately, rumors that his son's health is worsening are incorrect. "There has not been a firm commitment by Santini, but we don't see anything has changed over the last weeks or months," said a spokesman in the Wash-See POLITICS, page 3D Laffer delivers sharp-tongued economic report By Mike NorrlsGazette-Journal U.S. Senate candidate Art Laffer of California brought his campaign safari to Reno Saturday, proclaiming the virtues of free-enterprise Reaganomics to hunters of a different kind of game.

The presidential adviser and father of "supply-side" economics used his often humorous, but more often acerbic speech to the hunter-oriented Mzuri Wildlife Foundation to shoot down incumbent Alan Cranston, whose Senate seat Laffer would like to net. Laffer, a Ph.D. and professor at Pep-perdine University in California, keyed his wide-ranging political address to the 350 Mzuri members in the luncheon audience. He praised them as "part of a revolution focused on incentives" that are "based on the premise that people like to do things that are attractive and don't like to do things that are unattractive." He called Mzuri, a Swahili word meaning "good," an example of needed "privatization" of some activities now performed primarily by the government in this case, wildlife conservation. Established in 1969 by a club of safari enthusiasts, Mzuri has provided nearly $1 million to assist "hunter-oriented wildlife conservation." Its founders, directors and officers are "hunters who have collectively stalked nearly every game species on this planet," according to the foundation.

"I am very much of a conservationist," Laffer, who is not a game hunter, said before his speech. "But business is the answer to this (conservation) problem because its responds to incentives." Preaching the canons of free-enter- See ART. page 3D struck Ault, who was in the travel lane. Briggs was treated at Washoe Medical Center for facial cuts. The Nevada Highway Patrol is investigating the accident, in accordance with Reno Police Department policy.

Briggs was routinely placed on administrative leave with pay until the investigation is completed. Highway Patrol officials Saturday would not release details of the investigation, expected to last three or four days. Witnesses to the accident said Ault was wearing dark clothes and was hard to see. 1 shot, 1 arrested in Sparks An exchange of gunfire in Sparks Saturday resulted in the injury of one man and the arrest of another. Nicolas Hureta, 32, was arrested for investigation of attempted homicide in the 3 a.m.

shooting of Ronald J. Bushee, 20. Police said Hureta shot Bushee, who was reportedly treated and released at St. Mary's Hospital, in the shoulder with a 9 mm handgun. Both men reside at an apartment complex at 800 E.

Nichols where the shooting occurred. According to Sparks Police, the incident began over a noise complaint from the victim's apartment. Hureta reportedly got a gun out of his car after seeing Bushee with a gun. Hureta fired at Bushee through the door of Bushee's apartment, hitting him in the shoulder. Bushee then fired back.

Police said four to six shots were fired. The case is under investigation. Death penalty reordered LAS VEGAS A District Court jury has again given Gregory Collier the death penalty for the slaying of a convenience store clerk. Jurors deliberated about three hours late Friday night before agreeing to sentence Collier to death. Collier's original death sentence for the killing of 56-year-old Earl Harris in 1981 was overturned last year by the state Supreme Court, which ordered another penalty hearing for him.

The 23-year-old Collier testified Thursday he consumed large amounts of drugs and alcohol during the 24 hours before he went into the convenience store and shot Harris twice after a robbery. Defense witnesses said Collier had developed a positive attitude on death row and counsels young people in juvenile jails. But prosecutors contended he had merely tried to manipulate the criminal justice system in an attempt to avoid death by lethal injection, or possibly get out of prison. Nellis sergeant arrested LAS VEGAS A Nellis Air Force Base sergeant was arrested Saturday after he allegedly fired shots into two cars outside his apartment, then came out waving a large sword, police said. Walter William Haywood, 37, was booked for investigation of discharging a weapon in city limits, carrying a concealed weapon and resisting police officers after the incident shortly before 2 a.m.

Metro Police said Haywood was apparently despondent and fired several shots before police arrived. When he came out of the house, police quickly grabbed him and disarmed him before putting him under arrest. The sword and a 38-caliber derringer were confiscated. No spring floods forecast The Humboldt River basin, plagued by heavy spring runoffs and occasional flooding the past two years, should have a relatively easy time of it this year, according to the National Weather Service. After heavy snow accumulations in November, a relatively warm and dry November and December cut the snowpack.

Now, however, the snowpack has returned to about normal for this time of year because of a recent series of storms. As a result, the weather service says no unusual spring snowmelt is expected unless abnormally heavy storms return to the area the latter part of this winter. Correction The Children's Television Workshop's special "3-2-1 Contact" program about life as an astronaut updated to help children understand the space shuttle tragedy is scheduled for Sunday, Feb. 16, on KNPB, channel 5, at 9:30 a.m. It will not air today as originally reported.

Wire service and staff reports Related photo, page 3D. the trained elephant from John Ascuaga's Nugget. Some competitors can earn $3,000 during one-day competitions around the country, but Saturday's contest featured smaller purses. Competition was keen nonetheless. "You're seeing some of the best competitors in California," said organizer George Harrison, a Grass Valley lumberman.

Harrison, who got many of the entrants on only two days' notice, went on to win the all-around lumberjack title after defeating Tahoe City's Ernie Marier in an ax-throwing playoff. Harrison outscored Marier by four points. "You always feel good when you win," Harrison said after the tense throw-off. "But you feel better when you get your paycheck." Most of Saturday's contestants are genuine woodsmen folks who make their living with a chain saw or tractor in the forest. But some spend less time in the woods than they used to because they can make a living traveling the world competing.

"I'll hit about 20 of these a year and make pretty good money at it," said real cutups Rolin Eslinger, 27, a burly 6-foot-4 logger from McCloud, near Mount Shasta. "You make enough to get by, and that's good enough." Eslinger teamed up with Dennis Harvey, who works in a tire shop in Grass Valley, to win the double-buck, or cross-cut saw, competition. Harvey figured he "got lucky" because he's 37 years old and feels he's over the hill. Harvey, acknowledged by the Worldwide Association of Timber Sports as its champion ax-thrower, also competed in the "hot saw" competition with a souped-up chain saw equipped with a 425-cc motorcycle engine. "But I'm over the hill," Harvey lamented.

"These young kids today are strong." But not strong enough. An eight-man tug-of-war team more accustomed to tromping other all-male teams gave Bertha very little trouble in the competition's final event. After a few stutter steps, the ubiquitous mammoth strode carelessly across the convention center lawn with a string of puffing woodsmen in tow. "Not to worry men," one competitor said afterward. "When are you ever going to find an elephant in the woods?" Mark CrosseGazetteOournal serve as jailhouse lawyer is a precious asset indeed.

But today, Ybarra is back on his own, having to shift gears from a society where his smarts put him in the highest strata of the prison population to a world where the name Bernard Ybarra holds faint recollections of an old murder trial for some, anonymity for others. The door to Lawsearch Associates on the ground floor of the Universe Life Building downtown was ajar Friday afternoon and Ybarra was inside scroll-See LEGAL, page 3D By Jim SloanGazette-Journal Those lumberjacks are tough. They open their beer cans with axes they throw from 20 feet, and they slice up 2-foot-wide tree trunks with chain 75 saws as big as motorcycle engines. For fun, they'll have a tug of war with an elephant. That's the glimpe of the woodsman's lifestyle scores of city slickers got during loggers' contests at the Sierra-Cascade Logging Conference Saturday at the Reno-Sparks Convention Center.

The three-day conference primarily showcased the latest in heavy equipment used by lumber and paper com- Eanies to harvest timber. But the two-our competition between some of California's top loggers reminded conferees what the "Paul Bunya'n days" were like. Many competitors travel the world for professional contests, but Saturday's effort was a scaled-down competition thrown together just last week. The loggers competed ax-throwing, cc-ed in the woodsman's vernacular) cross-cut sawing, chain sawing for speed, all-male crosscut sawing, "hot'' (souped-up) chain sawing, and a tug of war with Bertha', Prison was law school for top Reno paralegal By Ken MillerGazetteJournal One day in October 1983, Bernard Ybarra interrupted lunch to go to a Nevada State Prison visitor's room to discuss an inmate's seemingly insurmountable legal problems. As he talked, Ybarra lit a skinny brown cigar, then put it out.

He lit it again, and put it out again. Ybarra was rationing his smokes, and the inmate whose court battles he was discussing was Bernard Ybarra: serving what amounted to nine years at "Max" on a first-degree murder rap. Today, on the outside, the 40-year-old Ybarra continues to parlay his years of amateur legal work into an apparently lucrative paralegal practice. Not long ago, he sat in Reno federal court on the spectator side of the railing to take in a hearing over a civil rights suit involving state prison inmates. He stopped by the court clerk's office to drop off some legal briefs and then ducked into a new, bright red Thunderbird and drove off.

The one-time Nevada Highway Department computer program analyst, whose career was interrupted when he pumped three bullets into a lifelong friend and fellow worker during an argument, seems to have put his life back together. Ybarra insists today, as he has for more than 11 years, that he is innocent of the gunshot killing of Robert Luevano. And today, as he has since the day he checked into prison, Ybarra continues to handle the lion's share of his own case. He is off parole, but the state of Nevada has IS 1 i JLivX BACK ON TRACK: Bernard Ybarra, who spent nine years in prison on a murder rap, has used the knowledge he gained while incarcerated to become a respected appealed to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco a federal court's reversal of Ybarra's conviction. For nine years, Ybarra's self-taught legal background earned him the grudging respect of prison officials and prosecutors.

It also delivered to his cell the admiration of dozens of inmates some with no hope of release who banked on Ybarra to help get them everything from a new trial to an extra shower or better meals. In a world where the average level of education hovers around gramnvr school, anyone with enough brains.